Backstage
America Ferrera on What She Added to Her ‘Barbie’ Monologue
By Eric Webb
JANUARY 31, 2024
What performance should every actor see and why?
One of the performances that compelled me to so deeply want to be in show business is Bette Midler [playing] the role of Mama Rose in [the 1993 TV movie] “Gypsy.” Bette Midler is Bette Midler. She’s an icon. There was so much freedom and permission and humor and gravitas and fluidity—how she could go from a monster-type character into a vulnerable, childlike victim. It’s one of the great roles of musical theater history. But her interpretation of it sparked something in me.
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